Seminary: 78 Helaman 12

Background: Nephi asks the Lord to bring a famine to the land to humble the people. The people repent and Nephi asks the Lord to bring rain. Many of the Nephites again turn wicked but are driven out of the land. They take on the name of the Gadianton Robbers and are living in the mountains. The Nephites tried to gather a force to eradicate them but were unsuccessful.


Write: “I guess one of the greatest mysteries of mortality is why mankind fails to learn from history.” – Elder L. Tom Perry (Ensign, Nov. 1992, 16)

What is the missing word (history)?

Why would this be the case?

-Discuss each of the parts in the pride cycle

Where in the cycle do you think our country is in?

When the Lord chastens a nation for its wickedness do faithful members sometimes suffer?

Helaman 11:34-36

According to these verses how quickly can the cycle repeat itself?

Review Helaman 12:1-6 and look for reasons people tend to repeat history.

What can we do to avoid this cycle?

Helaman 12:23-24

What is Mormon’s counsel for those who desire to avoid this cycle?

What does it mean to hearken to God?

Who will be saved?

In what ways do people pass through a “personal pride cycle”?

What portions of the cycle would we want to experience?

How can we skip steps 2 and 3 and continue going from step 1 to 4 and over again?

What have you found that helps you be humble and repentant?

President Ezra Taft Benson:

“The outlook for the world is not encouraging, but we know what the answer is. There is only one answer, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Peace must come from the heart. Men’s hearts must change, and righteousness must rule in the lives of the people of the world before peace can come. May God hasten the day. May the message of the restored gospel go forward in great force, by increasing numbers, that God’s children may escape the calamities which are impending” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1945, 157).

How can “men’s hearts change”?

What calamities are coming?